Westport jeweler mourned a year later

Updated 11:45 pm, Friday, December 7, 2012

WESTPORT -- Yekutiel Zeevi was always more than a Westport jeweler. To his family and friends, "Kuti" was an ebullient, generous and compassionate man.

Saturday is the one-year anniversary of Zeevi's death at the hands of an armed robber, a man identified by police as Andrew Robert Levene. After casing Zeevi's Y.Z. Jewelry office for several days, Levene gunned down Zeevi on Dec. 8, 2011, at the store in the Compo Shopping Center on Post Road.

The homicide touched off an international manhunt for Levene -- a concerted, multi-agency pursuit that ended in Spain after several weeks.

Now, a year after the killing, those who knew and loved Zeevi, as well as the Westport police, feel the loss.

Zeevi's killer was not a total stranger, police learned. Levene came to see Zeevi as a prospective buyer, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in January in U.S. District Court by Westport Police Detective Philip Restieri and Deputy U.S. Marshal James Masterson.

Levene, identifying himself as "Robert," spoke to Zeevi on the phone several times before making an appointment to visit the Y.Z. Jewelry office on Dec. 7, police said.

Along with Zeevi's business associate, Ronen Konfino, the three men looked at several diamonds, each about three to four carats. They discussed a possible purchase by Levene and agreed to meet the following night, according to the affidavit.

When the group met the next night, the 41-year-old Levene looked at six diamonds worth a total of about $300,000. After a half-hour or so, Levene told Zeevi and Konfino he wanted to "sleep on it," according to the affidavit.

Levene then shifted in his seat, reached into his jacket, pulled out a gun, and shot Zeevi and Konfino.

Zeevi, 65, likely died quickly from his injuries, but Konfino survived. Although Konfino was seriously injured, he was able to call 911 from the jewelry office to report the shooting.

Shortly after police were dispatched to the scene, Zeevi's wife, Nava, was informed of the shooting that changed her life and broke her heart.

The couple immigrated to the United States after they were married in 1971. In Westport, they raised a son, Neer, and a daughter, Tali.

Within hours of Zeevi's death, Westport police teamed with state and federal law enforcement officials to launch an investigation. Twenty-five detectives worked on the case, including six from Westport's detective bureau.

Investigators did not have a lot of physical evidence from the crime scene. But they did have a crucial asset -- an eyewitness in Konfino.

When the sketch was done, Konfino rated its likeness to Levene as an "11"on a scale of 1 to 10, according to the affidavit by Restieri and Masterson. By early January, when Restieri and Masterson filed their arrest warrant affidavit, investigators were confident that they knew that Levene had gone to Spain.

After 6½ weeks on the run, Levene was arrested Jan. 23 in Barcelona on federal murder, robbery and firearm charges. By the time he was apprehended, the hunt for Levene had grown into an international initiative.

After Levene was arrested, American law enforcement officials planned to extradite him back to the United States. But the prosecution ended quickly and unexpectedly.

A couple of days after he was detained, Levene was found dead in his Barcelona jail cell. Authorities said he hanged himself.

"I was really disappointed," Restieri said. "We had such a great case and such great teamwork with all the agencies in solving this crime and actually arresting someone in another country."

And yet closure has come slowly to so many in Westport.

Twelve months ago, the Compo Shopping Center was a crime scene -- cordoned off by yellow police tape and filled with police vehicles. These days, it has returned to a typically busy commercial plaza.

Reminders of Zeevi abound, however. On a brick wall next to the front door of the office complex where Zeevi worked, the Y.Z. Jewelry sign is gone. In its place, a pristine, new plaque hangs, designating the spot as "Kuti's Way," a memento conceived by Gail Barzilai, a friend of the Zeevis.

But the memory of Yekutiel "Kuti" Zeevi endures most tangibly not through any monument, but through a very young descendant. Five days after his father died, Neer Zeevi and his wife, Liora, welcomed a new baby into the world.

The couple named the child, Yuval, which means brook or stream of water in Hebrew. He is Zeevi's first grandchild.

"As he opened his eyes for the first time, we all knew that Kuti is looking at us through them," Nava Zeevi said. "He is sweet, adorable, clever and funny, the grandson Kuti was so eagerly waiting, and sadly, will never meet."